Design Thinking in Healthcare

This book offers basic knowledge on Design Thinking as a method, process and philosophy. It presents thoughtful Design Thinking case examples and tools for nurses and other healthcare professionals, researchers, students and educators to support their development as creative and transformative leaders in their fields.

Healthcare managers of the past viewed patients’ needs merely as targets for population-level health outcomes to be validated in the final phases of developing interventions and services. Today we know better. Patients’ needs and experiences should be viewed as sources of innovation at the front-end of the development process. It provides the basis for applying design thinking to develop better healthcare services and health tech applications.

Today, the success of any healthcare service depends on complex interactions between various stakeholders, and new solutions can only be delivered effectively through co-creative and collaborative efforts. Coordinating such efforts relies on strong concepts that can only result from properly run design processes, that this book describes in light of case studies around the world.

Design thinking is crucial generalist skill and is receiving increasing attention in the field, as forward-thinking organizations delve into the practice. It can change the way medical solutions are created and how clinical services are delivered. By driving innovation by means of empathy and practicality, design thinking provides tools for those seeking to drive radical renewal in the field.